My enthusiasm is surpassed only by the lack of time I have to do everything I am supposed to be doing! UPDATED! Now with even less free time!
on August 15th, 2009Thought I’d just sum it all up in the title.
Artists just love to complain about how busy they are. It makes them feel important. After not being as busy as I would like for a protracted period of time, I am quite pleased about the busy.
In other news, the Perseid Meteor shower looked exactly like a big bank of cloud cover.
I have posted some more goodies to ebay, including this, the very first A Distant Soil splash page I did for that late, lamented Starblaze graphic novel edition.
Really wanted to get through at least a year without ebay, but necessity is the mother of art auctions. I went a whole nine months without selling art. I don’t really mind sellling art online, I just don’t like driving into the city to get stuff shipped. Time consuming.
Auctions are far more profitable than going to shows, even when one doesn’t realize prices quite as high as one might like. There are no convention overhead costs to consider. And for every piece that doesn’t get the big bucks, there’s another piece that astonishes. So, no complaints. With two major trips coming up, I appreciate the extra cash.
On the gardening front, the rainy, cool weather has made for weak yields, which has left me with more time on my hands to draw. I appreciate not having to haul great loads of water all over the acreage, but fungus felled the cucumbers and I have had to plant more after canning only 14 jars of my prize dill pickles.
Last year I had gathered hundreds of pounds of produce, and this year, no more than about 10 lbs of tomatoes. Only now are the heirlooms starting to produce.
On the other hand, grapes, berries, and root veggies have been generous. I love beets and turnips, and have already planted fall crops.
Lavender has gone wild. I’ve made some nice sachets out of velvet and organza. Some plants have bloomed three times, and we’ve even had some grow from seed, which is tricky. However, lavender doesn’t like lots of rain, and one of my favorite plants rotted out at the root. Fortunately, it started itself again from a stray clump.
Here we are at a farm learning all about how to do stuff with lavender. ‘Aint it purty?
That’s me ma.
All of the refreshments were made with lavender. Lavender cookies, lavender lemonade, lavender ice cream, lavender cakes, lavender salads, lavender butter. Yum.
The following pieces are still for sale and prices include shipping worldwide. These prices are firm.
Book of Lost Souls #7 Original UNPUBLISHED cover art, story J. Michael Straczynski, art by me. Pristine condition on 11″x14″ bristol. This is among my favorites. Very clean. $350.
A Distant Soil: The Gathering front cover art, original watercolor on very heavy Strathmore 500 acid free. Image area 10″x14″ on 11 1/2″x16″ board. Good condition. $2500.
From an A Distant Soil back cover, a painting of Jason, from a VERY early edition of the series, circa 1984. Holy cow, that date makes my head hurt. Mixed media on board, good condition. 12″x17″ image area, actual board with nearly 2″ margin all around. Edges of board have some wear, but actual image area is quite nice. Very clean and bright colors. $500
Paypal preferred. Got questions? The contact button is your friend. And for those of you who can’t find it, that’s:
colleen@adistantsoil.com
lavender butter? *blink* I… I think I want to try this.
Which reminds me of what I was going to say anyway, re the splashpage: Butterbear! Are we ever going to see more of Liana’s poor abandoned stuffed animal? I know she left it with Minetti’s kid for safekeeping but… won’t someone think of the stuffies?
(which also reminds me something I’ve wondered for years: They had these stuffed animals back in the 80′s and a cartoon series to match it, called the Wuzzles, and one of them was called Butterbear. Looks totally different in design, but was Liana’s bear’s name a homage to a real stuffie or total coincidence?)
Coincidence.
I used to have a Butterbear and a Cocoabear. I still do.
Maybe I shouldn’t admit to that.
Back in the late 1970′s/early 1980′s a local bank did a promotion. They gave away stuffed toys. I don’t know if they were created for the promotion or if they were based on pre-existing material.
However, there was a book about them:
http://openlibrary.org/b/OL3195811M/Cocobear-meets-Butterbear
It appears the line of toys and promotion has been abandoned, and both names are now being used on a variety of products from other companies, including Disney and Vermont Bear.
Which teaches us to use those trademarks or lose them.
So many uses for Lavender, it’s like the Spam of the flowering world.
I’m sorry that your yeilds have not been plentiful, mine have suffered from the heat, but I am happy to have what they produced. I still have hope for my Canteloupes and Watermellons, fingers are crossed.
“Artists just love to complain about how busy they are. It makes them feel important.” This is to true for me, the saying,”Shut up and draw” comes to mind, and is exaclty what I should do.
If I recall correctly, poor Butterbear met his untimely demise in Orbiter (very early in the book, the huge double-page spread).
Yeah, but no doubt his headless, reanimated corpse will appear on the zombie variant cover of the next issue of ADS…
Here’s the original art to that Orbiter spread:
http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=258331&GSub=39917
For awhile, I planned to sneak Butterbear into every book I was doing, but meh, I gave up that ambition.
*looks through Orbiter*
OMG. I can’t believe I missed that the first ten readthroughs.
I blame Warren Ellis. Clearly he has infected you with horrible stuffie-killing vibes.
The only way you can atone for this is by putting Butterbear in Amerikay.
LOL! We’ll see.
I had almost forgotten I had torn his head off in Orbiter. Man, you guys have memories like elephants.